There are many fruit and vegetable gardens across the countryside. More students, at Madison Elementary School, are growing their own food in the gardens.

 The vegetables are washed. Then kids can eat them at a salad party. They are also sold in the school dining hall for lunch. This month, students will plant tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, broccoli(西兰花) and strawberries.

 Why are students learning how to grow food? Teachers want kids to learn healthy eating habits. Healthy food gives us energy. We need energy to grow.

 Many kids are now trying new food and learning how to grow food. Lisa is the parent volunteer of the program. She says a lot of students have told her, “I like salad. I didn't think I liked salad!” Then those students have gone home and asked their parents to buy vegetables that they have tried at school.

 Lisa's daughter, Lucy, is one of those students. She is in Grade Two.“I love the garden,”she says.“I didn't really like vegetables before we had the garden. Then we found out that gardening is cool. Now I like vegetables. My favorite vegetable is carrots.”

    There is a bar (酒吧) with the name “The White Horse (马)”. A picture of a white horse is on the door (门) of the bar. It is Mr. Webster's. Few (很少) people go to the bar.

    One day, Mr. Wilson comes in, drinks (喝) a cup, watches the bar, and then says to Mr. Webster, “Few people come here. Take down(拿下) the picture of the white horse and put (放) a picture of a black horse.” “But the name of the bar is 'The White Horse',” Mr. Webster says. “Yes, but do it,” says Mr. Wilson.

    After that, Mr. Webster goes to a store and says, “I want a picture of a black horse.” The next day, a picture of a black horse is on the door of the bar.

    The next morning, a man comes in and asks, “The name is “The White Horse”, but why do you put a picture of a black horse on the door of your bar?” The man sits down and asks for a cup. Then a second man comes in and asks the same question, and then a third man .... Many people (许多人) come in and say, “The picture on your door is not right.” After that, they all sit down and drink in Mr. Webster's bar.

    Lost Underground is a story about four school children who went on a trip to some caves. These caves were very large and people could go into them only with a guide. However, four children decided to explore on their own. They went in the caves with a group, but left the group and walked down the tunnel. They thought it would be fun to explore the cave alone.

    Soon they came to a hole in the wall. They climbed through the hole into another part of the cave. Then they decided to turn back, but they could not remember the way. They were lost in the caves. When the guide led the other children out of the caves, he counted them. He discovered that there were four children missing. He had to go back into the caves to try to find the missing children.

    The children who were lost moved deeper into the caves. The deeper they went, the more lost they became. They were frightened. They started shouting for help, but the guide didn't hear them. How dangerous!

    Soon they came to an underground river. They guessed that the river must flow out of the caves. The water was very cold and deep, but the children kept on swimming. For a long time, they swam in darkness, then they saw a light ahead of them. The river was flowing out of the caves into a big river and the children were able to leave the caves. They climbed out of the river onto the riverbank. They saw the bus with the other children in the distance.

I have always loved dancing. When I was younger, I watched lots of dance programs and spent hours practicing dancing in front of the mirror every week! I thought I was quite good, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} as I got older, I became less confident（自信的）. 

Recently I decided I'd join a dance class. The problem with most dance classes is that you need a partner（舞伴）, and none of my male（男性的） friends ever wanted to come with me. I {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（prepare） to give up on the idea when I came across a magazine article about Chinese dance. And it said that a club in my town offered Chinese dance classes. It sounded great and best of all I could do it on my own! So I made a {#blank#}3{#/blank#}（decide） to take the classes. 

I turned up for my first lesson feeling very anxious （焦虑的）. I knew nobody there and I had never tried Chinese dance. Luckily, everyone was really friendly. We were all women. The {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（young） was about eighteen and the oldest was forty. Our teacher first asked us to do some warm- up exercises. Then she played music and we started following her moves. As soon as I listened to music, I lost {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（me）in the moves and had no time to worry about anything. After class, I got a strong feeling of {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（satisfy）. 

I {#blank#}7{#/blank#}（notice） a lot of changes since I took up Chinese dance as a hobby. I'm much {#blank#}8{#/blank#}（health） and I feel more confident. I've also made some great friends in the class. What {#blank#}9{#/blank#} amazing thing!

If you're interested {#blank#}10{#/blank#} dancing, you can try Chinese dance. It won't let you down. 

Chen Dong is my pen pal. He says that there are many popular 1  in his country, such as the Lantern Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Double Ninth Festival and so on. But 2 thinks the Double Ninth Festival is the3 important festival in China. Why does he think so? Because it encourages people to respect, love and take good care of the old. That is a 4  virtue (美德) of the Chinese nation. It's on the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (阴历月). The number nine in both the month 5 the day creates the double nine. In Chinese, double nine is pronounced  6  same as the words jiu jiu meaning "forever". 7  that day, people enjoy a lot of activities like climbing a high mountain, eating Double Ninth Gao, wearing the zhuyu plant to wish to avoid evil (辟邪) and live long. People eat Double Ninth Gao to hope progress in everything. 8 interesting and meaningful festival it is! Are you also interested in it? I can9 wait to go to China to have a look on my own very soon! I am looking forward to10 him for the festival this year.